New external hard disc Verbatim 500GB does not start up the Time Machine

Question

New external hard disc Verbatim 500GB does not start up the Time Machine

Hello,
I have just purchased an external hard drive (500 GB Verbatim USB 2.0 portable) to back up my computer. The Time Machine did not start up as it usually does when I plug in an external disc and istead a window popped up saying that "unexpected error occured. Error - 43". Does anyone know what the problem is and how to get rid of it? I need to be back up my computer ..
Thank you.
P.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Apr 9, 2011 5:52 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,464 points

Apr 9, 2011 6:35 AM in response to PreferPenAndPaper

how is that drive formatted ?

Reply

Answer 2

Apr 9, 2011 11:10 PM in response to Jolly Giant

i did not format it in any way. I just plugged it in my computer. I have actually never formatted any hard drive in the past and they worked just fine with my Macs.

Reply

Answer 3

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,464 points

Apr 9, 2011 11:22 PM in response to PreferPenAndPaper

find out. in a finder window, right-click on the icon of the drive and +get info+. check the format and post back

Reply

Answer 4

Apr 10, 2011 6:11 AM in response to Jolly Giant

So I checked and the format of the new Verbatim hard drive is MS-DOS (FAT32).

Reply

Answer 5

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,464 points

Apr 10, 2011 6:29 AM in response to PreferPenAndPaper

Pavla Fleischer wrote:
So I checked and the format of the new Verbatim hard drive is MS-DOS (FAT32).

that's the problem. time machine cannot back up to FAT32 formatted HD's.

use *disk utility* to reformat the drive for Mac (partitioned using GUID and formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)).

use the instructions in [ this|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html] user tip.

Reply

Answer 6

Apr 10, 2011 6:45 AM in response to Jolly Giant

Thank you very much. I've been following the instructions you sent me but I got stuck in the part which talks about partitions. My disk utility does not have a tab PARTITIONS. What do I do with that?

Reply

Answer 7

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,464 points

Apr 10, 2011 7:12 AM in response to PreferPenAndPaper

Pavla Fleischer wrote:
My disk utility does not have a tab PARTITIONS.

make sure you're selecting the drive, and not its volume(s) indented under it, in disk utility

( *click on image to enlarge* )

Reply

Answer 8

Apr 26, 2011 2:31 PM in response to Jolly Giant

Hello, I am sorry that it has taken me so long to respond. I did as you said, the disc is now formatted correctly, but the Time Machine still gives me the same error -43. What else can I do?

Reply

Answer 9

ebinellis

Level 3

685 points

Apr 26, 2011 2:36 PM in response to PreferPenAndPaper

1. Copy this file to your desktop, then delete the original: /Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist

2. Reboot the computer.

3. Open System Preferences>Time Machine.

4. Choose your backup drive.

5. Attempt to backup.

Lemme know how it goes.

EE

Reply

Answer 10

May 22, 2011 3:08 AM in response to ebinellis

Thank you so much! It did the trick and now everything is working fine. Thank you again! Pavla

Reply